"You will never defeat me!"

He glared down into the eyes of his enemy, they burned right through him, like a flaming arrow through flesh. He raised his sword. Thunder cracked and roared behind him, rain pelted off his already soaked and battered body, and lightning shattered across the raven-black sky. He brought his blood streaked blade down into the body of his Nemesis and as iron struck the soft flesh of Ganondorf, a blinding flash of light struck Link down and he fell to his knees with a yell of pain. His sword still caught in the body of his enemy.

Cold. Link opened his eyes, the pain subsiding from his head, and looked about him. He was crouched down, his arms tightly curled around his knees. He was shaking, and slowly he pushed one hand against the earth and levered himself to his feet. The landscape that was before him was unlike any other he had ever seen. Smoke curled about his feet, which were still dressed in the leather boots he had been wearing before...before when he had been battling Ganondorf.

"Zelda?"

There was no reply to his call, and he looked around once more, puzzled at what he saw. What lay around him could only be described as barren. The land before him was flat and shrouded in a grey mist, the earth was naked and covered by nothing, no grass or water, just soil and mud. He took a step forward, plunging through the mist, but he could see nothing more than a few yards in front of him. He shook his head, still confused, when he heard something behind him. He turned swiftly, his hand jumping to his waist where his sword normally hung, but it passed through nothing, and he turned to confront whatever lurked behind him with a lonely hand.

"Welcome hero," greeted a voice. It was a deep voice, familiar to its surroundings. Two red eyes stared out from a hooded figure, all clad in black. Link raised up his hand to defend himself, catching the wrist of the raised arm of his attacker. He plunged his free fist forward, hitting the figure in the face,sending him to the ground.

"Where am I?" Link demanded, resting his boot over the throat of the hooded man.

"Hyrule."

Link staggered back at the answer as if he had been caught in the stomach by an invisible fist clad in metal.

"Hyrule? But how...?" he asked blindly. The figure managed to rise to his feet, dusting off his stygian robes.

"This is Hyrule under the rule of Him."

Link gazed at the figure, not comprehending the meaning of the words.

"Him?" he echoed. The figure raised his arm and swept it to the side, pushing away the thick shroud of mist that had been closing in on them. Link followed the clear passage that was revealed and stared in disbelief at the huge tower before him, rising from the ground like a thorn from a rose, cutting upwards through the sky without regard.

"Ganondorf," guessed Link, his throat dry in realisation. But he had killed him. Hadn't he?

"You will never realise what it is to be on the other side," said the figure, drawing back his hood. Link gazed at him, fear gripping his heart like an icy claw. The ashen face that confronted him, pierced by those two blazing red eyes, the skin on his face was cracked and contorted...but it was like looking in a mirror.

"So I must show you." He reached out a hand torwards Link, and placed it over his eyes, gripping him like a vice. Link tried to back away but he was frozen, frozen by sheer panic, sheer terror. A force penetrated through him, shattering him into a thousand pieces and he tried to call out in agony, but his throat was closed, locked. Images he knew flashed through his mind, places he had been, people he had conversed with but all distorted, all screaming out to him...the pain. He reeled backwards and fell, hitting the ground, the earth beneath him coughing up like a cloud of dust. The blood, the hatred, the frenzy. All driven by one man.

He opened his eyes, rain still spitting upon him and saw Ganondorf before him, rising to his feet, Link's sword still embedded within him. He tried to back away, his feet slipping in the mud, his hands slick with the rain and the blood and he scraped away as Ganondorf brought his own weapon down on him, and into the ground. Link jumped to his feet and looked around desperately, Ganondorf still advancing torwards him.

"You will never defeat me!" roared the Gerudo King, snatching the sword from his chest and discarding it to one side. Link's eyes were instantly drawn to it, and he willed it to come to him but it remained wedged in the black mud, unrespondant. His eyes met again with Ganondorf's and he grimaced, his senses only just returning to him, the aching of his bones, the pain inside him. In one smooth movement he dived aside from Ganondorf's clumsy blow and careered into the mud, sliding to a stop just by the hilt of his Master Sword. He grabbed it from the mud and rolled to come face to face with Ganondorf and he let out a strangled choke as Ganondorf ploughed his weapon into his chest. A red spray of gore erupted before his eyes, he had been crushed, his lungs punctured screaming out for breath. Blood crawled from his throat and he tried to gulp it down, the bittersweet taste, but it continued and trickled onto his wet lips. Ganondorf raised his weapon again, preparing for surely the final strike, but Link kept tight hold of his sword and swept it to his right, cutting away the legs of his enemy with an almighty strike that made Ganondorf scream out in agony. He crashed to the mud beside Link and their eyes met one more time, before Link angled back his elbow and drove his sword home into the heart of his enemy. Ganondorf let out one last cry of protest, but he was already gone. Link took in a heavy breath, and his head lolled to one side as his heart gave in, but he knew now that Hyrule was safe...safe from the fate he had forseen.

Zelda let out a cry as the force field dropped around the two warriors, and ran to Link's aid, falling to her knees regardless of the blood that lay round his body in a grim outline. She placed her hand on his wet forehead, and ran her fingers across his cheek, carressing the line of his chin, tears falling freely from her eyes.

"Link...no," she whispered, her heart gripped by an iron fist of pain. She looked down at his broken body, closing her eyes in anguish at the sight of him, and tilted her head to the sky, to the pouring rain which still relentlessly fell, merciless. She opened her eyes and looked back down to Link, his head in the mud, blood on his lip and she let out a hollow sob, leaning down to kiss his clamy forehead.

"This was never meant to happen..." she wept, using her two fingers to close Link's eyes for one last time.

Author's Notes

I wrote this in about an hour(you can tell!) and it is probably the shortest 'story' I have ever written. Basically I wanted to write something short and different and this is what I came up with...I did write this a few months ago, and it probably isn't that different now...but hey it's not too bad. You might not think that of course, nor would I blame you!

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